More and more patients are doing this:
“Recommend 3 trustworthy plastic surgeons in [your city] for a rhinoplasty.”
And yes, more often than not the answer comes from ChatGPT, not Google, not Instagram, not the ad you spent so long setting up.
The good news:
This is not magic. With the right strategy you can use this new trend in your favor.
And the bad news: if you do nothing, you will be handing patients to your competition without realizing it.
Here are the main plays so that when a patient asks AI for “the best plastic surgeon in [your city]” or “the best rhinoplasty in [city]”, your name has a real chance of coming up.
1. Your Google Business profile cannot be "something my nephew put together"
Let’s start with the basics: Google Business Profile.
For ChatGPT (and any AI), your Google profile is close to your digital medical license. If it is incomplete, out of date or has two low-quality photos, the message is: “this place does not take its own image very seriously”. Not exactly helpful in plastic surgery, is it?
Minimum checklist:
Full, consistent name (Dr. + specialty, without inventing 5 different versions).
Exact address, with number, floor and suite.
Correct, working phone numbers.
Up-to-date hours.
Professional photos:
Reception
Consulting room
Waiting room
The team (in scrubs, not at a family barbecue)
A clear description: what you do, what you do not do, where you are genuinely strong.
Treat it as your official cover page.
Any AI passing through should understand: “this is a serious, active, current practice”.
2. Reviews: if you do not ask for them, only the worst ones get left
The reality is simple:
People are ten times more motivated to leave a review after a bad experience than after a happy one.
If you do not have a system for requesting reviews, your online reputation most likely does not represent the reality of your work.
What ChatGPT likes to see for plastic surgeons:
Reviews in several places, not just Google:
Google Maps
Facebook
Medical directories (Doctoralia, Top Doctors, RealSelf, whatever applies in your country)
Comments that talk about:
How they were treated
Support before and after surgery
Clarity in explaining risks and expectations
Results (without promising perfection, but showing satisfaction)
Your mini-plan:
After the post-op follow-up appointment (when the patient is feeling better), ask for a review.
Give your assistant a scripted message and a direct link.
Vary the platforms: send some to Google, others to Facebook, or to sites like Doctoralia.
The more real reviews your name has spread across the web, the more solid you look to AI when it has to choose who to recommend.
3. NAP: if your details change on every site, you look like three different clinics
NAP = Name, Address, Phone.
If in one place you are “XYZ Aesthetic Clinic”, somewhere else “Dr. Pérez Plastic Surgery Center” and somewhere else again “Dr. Juan Pérez Aesthetics”, the AI has a problem:
“Are these the same place or not?”
And when it hesitates, it drops you.
Check:
The same name on:
Your official website
Google Business
Facebook / Instagram
Medical directories
The same address (not one with “corner of”, another without a number, another on a different street).
The same main phone number (if you use a different one for WhatsApp, make sure it is clearly associated).
If you have several locations, that is no problem, but each one has to be clearly distinct and properly organized, not thrown together.
4. Presence in media and third parties: you saying you are good is not enough
AI loves seeing that other people and outlets talk about you:
Interviews in local media about:
Safety in aesthetic surgery
Trends (ultrasonic rhinoplasty, HD lipo definition, and so on)
Articles on health blogs where you are quoted as a specialist.
Participation in conferences, scientific societies, university events.
All of that amounts to external signals of authority.
When someone asks for a “well-known plastic surgeon in [city]”, those mentions carry far more weight than a post of yours saying “I am the best”.
A simple idea:
Once a quarter, do something worth reporting:
– Take part in a conference
– Give an interview
– Write a technical article the public can follow
and make sure it ends up published in some digital outlet.
5. Schema markup: the boring part that makes AI understand you
Here comes the most technical part, but it matters.
Your website can say:
“XYZ Clinic, plastic surgeon, rhinoplasty, liposculpture…”
But for Google and ChatGPT it is far clearer if you also use structured data (schema markup) that explicitly states:
“This is a medical clinic / practice“
“This is the doctor in charge“
“These are the specialties“
“This is the exact address“
“These are the hours“
“These are the reviews“
You do not need to be a programmer.
Your site (if it runs on WordPress) can probably use:
An SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math, and the like)
Tools for marking up structured data
It is not sexy, nobody sees it, and no one will congratulate you on Instagram for it.
But AI does understand it. And that translates into something considerably more interesting: more recommended patients without paying for ads.
6. Clinical cases and testimonials: tell stories, not just procedure names
When someone asks ChatGPT:
“Who has experience in secondary rhinoplasty in [city]?”
The AI looks for content connecting those words to your name.
If your website and your social media are nothing but a list of procedures, there is not much to associate.
What you should have:
Case studies (with consent):
The starting situation (respectfully, without sensationalism)
What was done (explained so anyone can follow)
The outcome, with a focus on safety and realistic expectations
Testimonials where the patient talks about:
How supported they felt
How the risks were explained
What recovery was like
That gives AI the “material” to say:
“This doctor has visible experience in this type of case.”
7. Ask ChatGPT what it thinks of you (and make it part of your marketing routine)
Almost nobody does this, but it is very simple:
Try things like:
“Which plastic surgeons do you recommend in [your city]?”
“Which plastic surgery clinics in [your city] have a good reputation?”
“Who are the specialists in [specific procedure] in [your city]?”
Do not expect to appear tomorrow. But do use it as a thermometer.
If:
You never come up
Or the same 2–3 doctors always do
Then your task is clear:
More reviews
A better website
More real content (cases, interviews, articles)
Better data consistency (NAP, directories, and so on)
Summary
Getting AI recommendations through ChatGPT as a plastic surgeon is possible, because it does not pick who to recommend at random.
It feeds on the same signals patients look at, but at scale:
Reputation
Clarity
Consistency
Proof of authority
If your digital presence is weak, confusing or out of date, you are handing that position to other surgeons who did take care of it.
